GenesisFan99 posted:Rusty Traque posted:GenesisFan99 posted:I’m a little confused by this decision. It’s clear that the idea was to go with cheap power and not spend a ton of money jumping on the Charger bandwagon, but why didn’t they purchase more F59PHRs and F59PHIs, or even more MP36PH-3Cs? Surely that would make more sense and be more efficient. They already have both of those locomotives which have proven themselves in service, so I don’t understand why they would go through all this trouble. I bet Hot Water knows something.
Are F59's still being made?
Rusty
They’re not, but neither are SD70MACs. That’s my point. They could easily have purchased more F59PHRs or F59PHIs to supplement their current fleet instead of buying SD70MACs. I understand the AC traction part, but why go through all the trouble of converting them when they could have just bought more of what they already have?
Like Hotwater mentioned, the AC traction was probably part of it. I also think there aren't that many F59PHIs or F59PHs on the used market right now. Metra bought their F59PHs (GO Transit) and F59PHis (Amtrak California and Cascades) because that was what was available, somewhat reliable, and cheapest at the time. The other operators of F59PH variants (AMT/Exo, Metrolink, Amtrak Piedmont, West Coast Express) are not currently selling their fleets (to my limited knowledge). MotivePower is offering the AC-traction, QSK95 powered MP54AC, but as noted above, new locomotives are expensive, and Metra seems to want EMD 710 engines that allow it to pay some lip service to reducing emissions and replace an aging fleet of F40 variants. I think Progress will use ex-BN SD70MACs because NS just returned several ex-BN executive livery leasers two months ago; I'm sure Progress is offering great financial terms to get rid of what was set to be for them an unproductive asset.
